ONE DAY...

ONE DAY.... One day, the very idea of 'un-selecting' any egg, embryo or foetus solely because of its actual or perceived 'risk' of the consequent child being autistic, will be as anathema as the idea of such selection on the grounds of race, gender or sexuality would be.

ONE DAY... Parents will never again grieve because their child is autistic, but rather accept it as simply another variation on human, albeit one that needs more support and understanding than most.

ONE DAY... no autistic will grow up hearing or thinking they are worthless or 'deficient' or 'terrible', or feeling they are a 'burden' on their parents, because of their autism.

ONE DAY... Parents of autistic children (and everyone else) will understand that their child is not 'lost' or 'stolen', or 'in their own little world', but right here in this one, just focussed on different things, and having different priorities.

ONE DAY... Those parents will never be frantic, overstressed and continually anxious or burdened with guilt because they didn't do this or that, or enough of this or that, or at the 'right' time, to 'treat' the autism. They will enjoy their autistic kids.

ONE DAY... It will be accepted as a given that every autistic child is intelligent and aware of their surroundings, whether or not they can speak, unless there is strong evidence otherwise (that's not an IQ test, which many autistic children don't perform well at).

ONE DAY... There will be an end to 'normalizing' autistics into some kind of pseudo-NT state. We will be allowed to be who we are, with a focus on enhancing our lives as autistic people, not squeezing us into a narrow concept of 'normal'.

ONE DAY... One day, there will be an end to harmful and hugely time- and energy-wasting autism 'therapies'. The 'autism industry' which now leeches vast sums of money from overwhelmed and desperate autism parents will go stony broke.

ONE DAY... It will be considered a normal educational practise to work with autistic children's special interests, focussing and building on their strengths, rather than viewing these interests negatively, and/or denying the child time with them so they can 'concentrate on therapy'.

ONE DAY... Stims and other autistic mannerisms will be simply accepted as normal variations on human behaviour.

ONE DAY... Social skills classes will teach autistic kids and adolescents what they really need to know, eg how to recognise, avoid and report bullies and abusers.

ONE DAY... It will be normal practise for every autistic person to have their own mentor or mentors, from school age till well into adulthood, with the right to such mentoring at any further time, if the autistic adult feels in need of it.

ONE DAY... Accommodations such as closed offices or workstations, the wearing of caps and/or sunglasses inside, etc, will be regarded as 'normal practise' where autistics, both children and adults, are concerned.

ONE DAY... Autistics of any age will no longer be murdered simply for being autistic. Or beaten up. Or locked up in mental hospitals, or fired, or jailed because we didn't look some cop or judge in the eye, or any of the other things that currently happen all too often.

ONE DAY... There will be public awareness campaigns based on how we really are... And this autism awareness will be taught as a matter of course, in all schools and workplaces.

ONE DAY... The current treatment of autistics will be looked back on the way we now regard slavery, apartheid, the Holocaust, or the treatment of gays and women before gay liberation and feminism.

ONE DAY... These and many other changes in attitudes to autism will happen.

...One day.

I hope I live to see it.